extra drivers by default <wireless>

w00dst0ck

First off, I've been using Gentoo on and off for about 1 year with a quad-boot setup (mostly for learning purposes) containing WindowsXP, FreeBSD(main os),Gentoo, and <distro flavour of the month>.

Ever since I moved over to FreeBSD as my main OS and I fell in love with how they handled wireless in particular and other drivers over all. I was wondering as to why the Linux Kernel doesn't contain most if not all of the wireless drivers out there written for Linux, Eg: madwifi drivers and ralink drivers.

I was playing around with Ubuntu on my test-drive-a-distro partition and noticed that they packaged these drivers in by default so that it would work right out of the box.

Now what I'm asking is, would it be possible for Gentoo to do the same? As in, can we have these drivers as part of the base system. I'm not asking for Gentoo to have these things work out of the box, setup and all, I would just love to have these drivers available so I can just configure my wireless card during the install and not have to run a cable or have to download these drivers ahead of time onto a usb-key, do a networkless install, install the drivers off the usb-key, then update the system once i have wireless up and running...

Just curious of course, hope I didn't ramble too much either.
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nixnut · Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 5:16 pm Post subject:

Gentoo is not about a one size fits all distribution. It's about a distribution that users can tailor to their needs. So wireless drivers won't be part of the base system. Some drivers will end up in the kernel and can be build by enabling them in the kernel configuration. Others will be available in portage where users can find them to emerge.
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Insanity5902 · Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 6:03 pm Post subject:

Two Things

1) If you put drivers into the kernel, you have to wait for a new kernel to upgrade the drivers, and then on top of that you have to update the entire system to use the new kernel (especially if there are new features or major changes in the kernel). With most wireless drivers they are coming out with new releases frequently, at least more frequently then kernel releases.

2) If you are looking for an easier setup, use knoppix or some type of livecd with your wireless drivers, install from that, and when you are chrooted into your new install, before you reboot, emerge your wireless drivers and get them working. Done! No networkless install needed.
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w00dst0ck · Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 9:23 pm Post subject:

You know what? I thought of those points right after I posted.

I've never used the knoppix livecd method of installing, though Ive been tempted and have yet had a reason to.

I'll try it out over the weekend.
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aidy · l33t Joined: 07 Apr 2005 Posts: 915

I did this gentoo install from an ubuntu livecd, must say it was a really nice expierience